Founders often make the same expensive mistake. They hit their first $1 million or $2 million in revenue and panic. They feel like the "founder-led sales" era is ending. They feel the pressure to "scale up."
So they go out and hire a full-time VP of Sales. They pay a massive base salary. They give away significant equity. They pay for full benefits. They expect this person to be a silver bullet who will double revenue in six months.
Six months later, that VP is gone. The revenue didn't double. In fact, it might have stalled. And the founder is left with a massive hole in the budget and a broken sales culture.
The problem wasn't necessarily the person. The problem was the timing. You hired a race car driver before you built the car.
The Infrastructure Gap
Most companies between $1M and $10M in revenue do not need a full-time executive to manage a team of two or three sales reps. That is overkill. It is a waste of capital that should be spent on lead generation or product development.
What you actually need is a builder. You need Revenue Operations Consulting to map your process before you try to scale your headcount. You need someone to build the playbook, not just someone to "manage" the chaos.
This is where a Fractional VP of Sales changes the game.
What You Get with Fractional Leadership
When you hire a fractional leader through RevenueEdge, you get the strategy of a veteran executive for a fraction of the cost. We don't just sit in meetings. We build the infrastructure.
Playbook Creation: We document your sales process so it is repeatable. If it isn't written down, it doesn't exist.
Tech Stack Implementation: We install and configure the CRM so it actually tracks data, rather than just being a digital rolodex.
Hiring & Training: We build the Outsourced Sales Team infrastructure that allows you to scale up or down based on demand.
The Financial Logic
Let's look at the math. A competent full-time VP of Sales easily costs $300,000+ fully loaded. And that is just the base and benefits. You also have to factor in aggressive commission structures and significant equity grants.
A Fractional VP costs a fraction of that monthly burn.
That saves you hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. You can reinvest those funds into:
- Paid Ads: To feed the funnel.
- Content Marketing: To build authority.
- SDRs: To make cold calls.
You pay for the high-level expertise you need right now, not for 40 hours of "management" time that you don't need yet.
Conclusion
Stop looking for a savior to hire. Look for a system to build. A fractional leader builds the engine so your future full-time VP can just step on the gas.
If you are ready to stop guessing and start building, book a strategy call with Ricavvo today.
